Soooo...I have been looking at them a lot and i kind of want some. They are beautiful fish but I don't want to get one until I know how their care differs from our domestic betta's. Are they still overly aggressive like our domestic betta? Can males and females live together? Are they solitary? Do they prefer larger tanks (20 gallons) or would they be okay in smaller tanks (5 gallons?)
I've kept imbellis before. You can keep them in the same tank as a male/female pair. However, you will need to provide plenty of cover (java moss works best) as like all bettas they can be aggressive and territorial at times.
A 5-10 gallon tank for a pair is fine. A group may need a tank in the 15-20 gallon range.
They do best in softer water, and I always think wild bettas show their best colouration in water that is tinted heavily with IAL.
They may be finicky as to what food they will take (most wild bettas prefer frozen and live to pellets) and may initially be shy until they settle in. Wild bettas are often a little more skittish than splendens so you have to be careful not to startle them too much.
I don't particularly like beef heart as a food for bettas. I have had more luck with live blackworms, live white worms and frozen brine shrimp (they will eat live as well) and frozen bloodworms.
It depends on the individual pair as to how often they will spawn. I have found if conditions are right, wild bettas can be very prolific breeders. Some of my pairs will spawn weekly.
I believe with imbellis you can keep the fry in with their parents but it depends on the individual fish. My channoides male and female would eat their fry as soon as they were free-swimming but other people did not have this occur. I will generally leave my fry in with the parents (if they are not the kind to eat their fry) until they are a week or so old and then remove them to a separate grow-out.
It can mess up your water quality if you try and raise a large amount of fry in the parent tank.
Thanks for the info, sounds like I would have to get my pair and just watch them closely to see how they behave as a pair with breeding and fry then build their maintenance around their schedule. Also where can I get them that I know they were not straight from the wild. I wouldn't want to have betta's straight from the wild, it would make me feel bad knowing they had a wide open world and now they have this...tank.
I don't particularly like beef heart as a food for bettas. I have had more luck with live blackworms, live white worms and frozen brine shrimp (they will eat live as well) and frozen bloodworms.
It depends on the individual pair as to how often they will spawn. I have found if conditions are right, wild bettas can be very prolific breeders. Some of my pairs will spawn weekly.
I believe with imbellis you can keep the fry in with their parents but it depends on the individual fish. My channoides male and female would eat their fry as soon as they were free-swimming but other people did not have this occur. I will generally leave my fry in with the parents (if they are not the kind to eat their fry) until they are a week or so old and then remove them to a separate grow-out.
It can mess up your water quality if you try and raise a large amount of fry in the parent tank.
i was just thinking the bioload of an adult pair and a full spawn would be kinda excessive....mommy, daddy and all the babies would be swimming in poo in a matter of hours.
I get all my wild bettas either through the transhipper here, or through Xtrembettas in Indonesia. I think The Betta Shop in MN stocks wild bettas such as smaragdina and imbellis so possibly try contacting them. A couple of members on here have imbellis so may be worth asking where they got them from. There is a big wild betta species thread located in this forum.
I understand your reservations about wild-caught bettas. However, while they can be a little more difficult to acclimatise at first, once they settle in they do not care in the slightest.
I have a few wild-caught pairs and they spawn and swim around enjoying life in captivity.
Most of these fish are facing massive habitat destruction anyway in their native home, so they are probably more likely to go extinct from that than from capture for the aquarium trade.
OMG IN MN...that is where I am right now...uh oh. >.<
Also another question, in the event I have a bunch of wild babies will there be a large enough population of people looking to take them in as pets? Also are there issues with wild betta's being inbreed like our domestic ones? I assume since they are wild and not shown they won't be so inbred and will actually be healthy and hardy animals.
OMG IN MN...that is where I am right now...uh oh. >.<
Also another question, in the event I have a bunch of wild babies will there be a large enough population of people looking to take them in as pets? Also are there issues with wild betta's being inbreed like our domestic ones? I assume since they are wild and not shown they won't be so inbred and will actually be healthy and hardy animals.
pssst! you didn't hear this from me, but there's a street in st. paul MN that has TWO betta shops within a few blocks of each other.
I've found if you provide your wild bettas with ideal conditions, they are very hardy, much hardier IMO than the domesticated splendens, even when very young.
It can be difficult to find homes for any offspring, as the wild betta market is something of a niche one. However, with imbellis they are close enough to splendens that they don't really need specialist care like some of the other species. You could probably sell them to people who own/have owned splendens and are looking for something a little different.
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
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